“Say it again,” he whispered.
I knew exactly what he needed.
“I love you.”
I felt his chest expand with the big breath he took.
He let it out.
And then we went to the bathroom.
After our shower, while getting ready, I told Knox about my convo with Dream.
It kind of sucked to share that me and my sister were coming together while he and his sister had broken apart, but I didn’t think he’d want me to keep it from him.
He didn’t react badly.
But of course.
He interrupted my makeup regime by getting off the toilet lid he was sitting on while listening to me, and he gave me a hug.
During this time, he shared that Shaw had gone to get my car last night, so we didn’t have to worry about swinging by the storage units to retrieve it.
These guys thought of everything.
It wasn’t until Lan hit The Surf Club to pick up Knox (and get a coffee from Tex and one of Willow’s sugar cookies from the case) and he told me he’d catch a Lyft, come back, have a late lunch and hang with me until my shift was over, that I realized his shift that day was ten to two. He’d spent two and a half hours at the bar at SC drinking coffee, eating a cupcake, doing shit on his phone and gabbing to the girls when we had time.
If he came back after his shift, he’d be hanging around for an hour and a half, probably doing much the same.
Which meant it wasn’t until after he was gone, I realized my man did not want me to walk to my car and get another unwelcome visitor and have another distressing chat.
Even in figuring this out, I didn’t fight him on it.
Like The Kevster said, a man had to do what a man had to do.
However, being stymied by Cheyenne in discussing getting a message to Gypsy, and then that message being delivered direct from Knox, with Byron in his corner with his laptop, I got another idea.
So I made him a dirty chai and headed his way.
When he saw me coming, he seemed wary.
Since I was no way going to tease him about his talents in feeling a bitch up, I just smiled at him, set his mug down and slid in a chair opposite him.
“I’m not gonna hand you shit about dating my sister,” I assured.
He relaxed and reached for his dirty chai.
“But I am going to ask for a favor,” I carried on.
His eyes came to me over the rim of his cup.
Yeah, he was kind of cute. Not my gig, but with all I knew, and what I saw, I was totally feeling him for Dream.
“This isn’t an Angel favor,” I said. “It’s personal. And it doesn’t have to be secret.” I was making this up on the fly, but it didn’t need to be secret, since whatever he learned I was going to tell Knox because that was the whole point of asking Byron to look into her. “It also isn’t a priority, because I know you’re busy saving the world and such.”
He put his mug down and was all ears.
“I want you to find out everything you can about a woman named Cynthia Chambers,” I requested. “I don’t have much to give you, outside the fact she’s Knox’s mother, she used to live in Tucson, and she currently drives a BMW.”
